Hw 40

Hey Peggy Vincent, thanks for writing Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a midwife. Your main argument comparing the differences between doctors and midwifes allowed me to see the pros and cons of both practices of childbirth. The book left me as an informed individual, allowing me to be able to make more informed decision when it comes to the birth of my own child.  

"Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?"

Well, in the last third of the book you focused on what a midwife needs to do to succeed and what a midwife should not being doing, which connected back to the first 2/3rds of the book. But let me be more specific. 

On page 244 why are you, a licensed midwife, not allowed to have input in what happens to your patient once they get to the hospital? Do you lose all say in her birthing process as if they fired you? And on page 246 after finding out Patties baby was going to have problems for the rest of its life and you need to get lawyers ready incase she sued. Were you worried that this one problem might be the end of your practice as far as the insurance companies were concerned? You were having problems with them before hand. Also on page 248 how shocked were you to hear that a dead baby was worth nothing to the world, almost like a mother signs her baby’s life away right before she gives birth?

"But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?"

Well, let's be clear, your text sought to provide a clear historical analysis about the evolution of midwifery and show the differences in midwifes practices verse doctors practices from the perspective of a midwife who despite the odds gained the respect of her peers and the respect of highly regarded doctors. Given that aim, and your book, the best advice I would give for a 2nd edition of the text would be, to elaborate more on the story where you used your midwife instincts to save lives that other wise in a hospital would not have been saved. But I don't want you to feel like I'm criticizing. I appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue and particularly for making me think about the journey midwifes have to go through to gain the respect they have today and also making me realize what it takes to be a midwife. In fact, I'm likely to do more research on what it takes to be a midwife and I now look at midwifes in a whole new light as a result of your book.

"Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society!"

Hw 38

Baby Catcher 

By Peggy Vincent

Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent is organized into separate sections, each having a central topic about being a midwife. These sections are further divided into sub-sections containing more in depth aspects of being a midwife.

The major question this book is trying to answer is how does having a midwife differ from having a doctor during your pregnancy? Midwifes have closer relationships with their “clients” which they end up calling friends unlike doctors who always thinks of their patients as clients. Doctors want to be brief and efficient so as not to get attached to their patients or waste the hospital’s money. A midwife wants to have a more personal experience with the mother they’re helping.

The book’s major insight in the first 100 pages is that pregnancy should be split into smaller parts to gain better understanding of the process. This makes it easier for a soon-to-be mother to handle it. This insight sounds like the right thing to do for all pregnant women because when people think of pregnancy they think of a long uncomfortable and stressful process but if it is explained in stages before they start the process it makes it a lot easier for them to handle. People who don’t understand the process listen to what the doctor says without asking questions and never know the outcome of what they are doing until after they do it. They believe that understanding the process is hard and only a professional can understand it.

The five aspects of birth that deserve public attention are the choose to have a midwife over a doctor, the pro of having a home birth over having a hospital birth, our body’s were made to have babies with out technology, what brought upon the practice of OB/GYNs and that hospitals are as much of a business as McDonalds are.

In the book Peggy uses first hand experiences to support all her arguments. Her stories are engaging; full of details and concise leaving clear accurate pictures inside her reader’s minds. “Dead silence. I cleared my throat, and their faces spun my way as if I’d blown a whistle.” P.45

Hw 37

Nick Protege -
I thought that your best thought was "I could not believe this mother could not feel contractions till she reached about eight centimeters. From all the stories I have herd at three centimes the pain is almost unbearable." This showed that you were really paying attention to what the mothers were saying. These interviews inspired me to go for what I want no matter what the cost.
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Michelle Comrade to me -
I found that after every story you would say what you had learned, what you found interesting and what questions each of their stories had provoked you to have. For example after first story you wrote, "She also loved the fact that she was fat and could eat whatever she wanted because in our society women want to be skinny so people will accept them and look at them as pretty. " You went deeper into the simplicity of how ahppy she was to jusrt eat and not worry about getting fat. To perfect your post I believe you should have questioned some of what they said after their retelling of their birth story. Other than that good job!
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Steph Comrade to me -
It was very interesting how you interviewed multiple mothers who had C- Sections and how they both said it was less painful. Your interviews were very detailed and intriguing, one thing you could work on is digging deeper and analyzing what the mothers said about birth. Other then that your post was very good I can't wait to read more.
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To Steph from me -
I like that you found three birth stories that were different and unique to one another. I thought it was interesting that you questioned the mothers diet in story two as if she could have prevented her baby from being fat. You questioned the mother’s actions in story one as if she did something to her stomach to almost lead her baby to death. I don’t think a mother would try to kill her child right before it is born. Do you think these things happed only because of the mother or are these things common? I think you could have elaborated on the story a bit more.
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To Michelle from me -

I agree with you when you said, that this assignment "let me know a lot more about pregnancy that I would have never dared to ask." This assessment made me ask questions that I other wise would feel to uncomfortable to ask. I feel you could have interviewed more people and made the person you interviewed dig deeper. I look forward to reading your later posts.

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From Mentor to me -
I enjoyed reading each of the mother's personal experiences. I thought the third interview was beautiful when the mother learned she was having twins. Also, interview one was very touching when the mother discovered she was pregnant after waiting her entire life.

It might have added a different and altogether unique perspective if Evan had interviewed a father describing his experience in the labor room.